“The Enunciation Lecture” is a sound work and sculpture that is based on a found record set titled “English Speech Instruction, A Condensed Course in the Correction of Frequent Mistakes in Enunciation”, by Professor Wallace House. This two record set is from the mid 1950’s. The records include an Introductory Lecture by Wallace and then a series of Classroom Exercises and Evaluations.

The audio component of this work begins with the superimposing and mixing of over 130 sound effects with Wallace’s Introductory Lecture. The sound effects range from an array of other human sounds other than speech, such as coughing, sneezing, burping, yawning, farting, breathing, groaning, snoring, clapping, booing, cheering, laughing, crying, and screaming, as well as an array of animal sounds, industrial sounds, cartoon and slapstick sounds, music, and other miscellaneous sound effects. The range of added effects serve as a symbolic catalog of audio signification other than speech that signify, such as signs, symbols, indexical, and iconic references to all forms of the audio-linguistic function. Professor Wallace, in his efforts to critique the speakers’ voice and diction, was also attempting to Anglicize the speaker. This effort appears to be located within a Modernist pursuit of truth and clarity, and a reduction. As an intervention, I wanted to expand the idea of language and was interested in allowing the idea of context to be on equal ground with the presentation of the subject, as if to suggest that language and thus signification, and meaning, does not exist or transmit to a receiver in an isolated situation.

The tracks that follow the Introductory Lecture utilize all the Classroom Exercises. These examples are superimposed as a developing progression; two, then three, four, and so on to where there are eventually nine speakers’ voices simultaneously reciting the Classroom Exercises. Each exercise ends at different times, so as the speakers stop, there are unexpected and random speech events toward the end of each track. The final short track is represented without any intervention and is comprised of Professor Wallace reciting a lesson on practicing proper speech, and how to work on the mistakes of speech enunciation one sound at a time.

The entire audio for this project is emitted through two small speakers that are mounted to a sculptural tower that is randomly composed of lines but is still performing as a structure. The sculptural presence of the tower has oblique references to the Tower of Babel as well as to architecture.

The relationship between musical scores and conceptual art is well documented: from early Stockhausen scores and John Cage’s seminal work, to the conceptual art strategies of Sol LeWitt and Yoko Ono, artists have found the idea of the score as a useful tool to further artistic practices. Historically, visual artists have used the notion of the score to transmit a set of instructions for completing an artwork (LeWitt) or in other cases the score itself is the final piece (Ono).

For this exhibition, we have asked 14 artists to participate in this tradition by creating a new visual work that will also serve as a musical score for another artist or musician to interpret and perform.

The Scores exhibition is part 1 of a 2-part project curated by VOLUME (Robert Crouch and Ed Patuto). More information on the entire project will be forthcoming.